When you fly, do you always make a point of visiting the flight deck and chatting with the crew?

I ask this because generally, I don't. Travelling as a child, I used to visit all the time back when they allowed it during flight. These days however, I feel that I wouldn't have anything worthwhile to ask / say to the crew, and I know what a cockpit looks like from all of the pictures on A.net.

I may do it more often once my digital camera arrives, but for now I just keep walking.

Do flight crews allow it or even welcome it? In the post 9/11 world i am afraid to ask. Curious as hell, but am afraid because I am thinking for security reasons they may not allow me to visit the cockpit.

I usually do when I'm on an aircraft I've neverbeen on before. I've already seen all the 737 and express a/c cockpits, so I usually don't visit them unless there's something special about the certain aircraft. However, if it's something new like the 767-400 or my first 777 than absolutely, I'll be up there taking pics.

Quoting Jm017 (Reply 5):Do flight crews allow it or even welcome it? In the post 9/11 world i am afraid to ask. Curious as hell, but am afraid because I am thinking for security reasons they may not allow me to visit the cockpit.

Of course you can. The captain might be extremely busy because the flight was delayed or something and the F/A say "you can't, sorry" or something, but that's very unlikely to happen.. asking never hurts!

Quoting WILCO737 (Reply 6):i am a pilot and when someone asks me I usually let them into my 737 cockpit! I Like it when people are visiting us (on the ground only, not allowed during flight Sad ).

Quoting UAalltheway (Reply 7):Of course you can. The captain might be extremely busy because the flight was delayed or something and the F/A say "you can't, sorry" or something, but that's very unlikely to happen.. asking never hurts!

Thanks. The next time i fly, i will ask. No harm can come from asking, right?

I ask for every flight I take. Airlines include UA, AA, AC, WS, and BD. Have only been denied on FlyBe for some unknown reason and BD citing "security", yet on my connecting flight beforehand, I had visited and taken photos of the flight deck.

The only place I have been questioned is at YTS, but after explaining that I'm an amateur photographer and enjoy aviation, there are no problems and they are very accomodating.

If the plane in question is a plane that I haven't seen the cockpit on or don't have a photo of the cockpit, I usually ask if I can have a quick look. I usually ask one of the crew members when they walk down the aisle for the last time before landing. The only airline that has denied me so far is KL and QF. On QF, I ended up visiting the cockpit anyway, cause me and my dad went upstairs (744) to have a look and the pilot invited us to the cockpit. Got a picture of me sitting in the captain's seat, unfortunately not digital though.

Christmas Day 2005 United Airlines Flight 935. I was upgraded to business class which was great as they made a mistake with my boarding pass.
Upon Landing i asked the F/A if i could go have a look up front and she came back and said the pilot will see you now.

Got a photo of me in the cockpit of the 777-200 and was chatting away with the pilot and oh what a feeling it was to sit there in that seat albeit a little cramped.
These guys have the best job in the world

I almost always ask, and so far every-time, I've been allowed to visit the flight deck, the pilots always seem to be accomodating and very welcoming, suprisingly enough, especialy after long flights, I think they just like the though of someone being interested in what they do, or perhaps the pilot is glad to talk to someone else, other than the first officer !
Personaly, I always enjoyed the 3-man flight-decks slightly better (with a F/E), because firstly, there's more to see, but also, it was always interesting to hear what the flight-engineer had to say about his interesting job

So yes, don't affraid to ask to take a visit, most of the time the flight-crew will be happy to let you visit them, even when they don't have much time, but usualy they only allow visits when they're on the ground, unless you're lucky .

My last flight deck visit was last wednesday (12/03/06 ,or for the Americans, 03/12/06), on a BA A320 from ABZ-LHR.

I ask all the time. I always get a "yes" as an answer. Whenever I try to bring up aviation chatter they don't treat me as if I'm very knowledgeable and they kind of rub me off... I guess that's what I get for being only 15 years old. Hopefully as I get older that wont happen.